John Curtis weaves pioneer legacy, clean energy and fighting debt into first Senate floor speech

Yahoo

15-05-2025

WASHINGTON — As Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, stood at the top of Ensign Peak, he placed himself in the shoes of his ancestors who climbed the same peak almost two centuries ago. Times have certainly changed, he said, but the values that drove them there remain the same.
Curtis thought of the trials facing his predecessors: An empty and barren desert staring back at them as they searched for a new home. They were driven by hard work and resilience, he said — the same principles that have elevated the state to become one of the best in the nation. Principles that lawmakers in Washington, D.C., should emulate.
'But even though I couldn't see it all — I knew the secret to Utah's success. It's not just in the buildings or the businesses. It's in the people,' Curtis said in his first speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday. 'We don't get everything right in Utah, but we've built something remarkable — a strong economy, fiscally responsible government, educational opportunity, and real upward mobility. These aren't accidents. Washington could use a little more Ensign Peak thinking — and a lot more pioneer doing.'
Those sentiments came during Curtis' maiden speech, a tradition in which newly elected senators deliver their first remarks before the chamber. The address provides an opportunity to introduce oneself to his or her colleagues and outline priorities for their six-year term.
Curtis described giving the speech as a 'pinch-me, almost surreal moment.' When he was mayor of Provo more than a decade ago, Curtis recalled, he was taken on a tour of the U.S. Capitol and he got a peek inside the Senate chamber.
'While we were walking, we got to look in, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. That was the coolest moment I could possibly imagine,' Curtis told the Deseret News in an interview. 'You can kind of imagine the feelings of that coming full circle.'
As Curtis quietly took his place behind the podium before his speech began, the Senate floor slowly began to fill with senators from both sides of the aisle. The room began to buzz in the typically poised chamber.
More than a dozen senators took their seats on the floor as some of his colleagues, like Sens. Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Ted Budd, R-N.C., greeted him on their way in.
'You've got this,' Britt whispered as she gave Curtis a fist bump.
Curtis' counterpart, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also took his seat in the chamber as he watched the junior senator with a smile.
In preparation for his debut speech, Curtis embarked on an interstate journey visiting four landmarks in Utah and Washington as part of what he called the 'Think Before I Speak: A Pilgrimage to American Principles' tour.
The tour was inspired by Curtis' great-grandmother, who served as the first female school board president of the Salt Lake City School District: Genevieve Curtis.
'Grandma Genevieve — we called her Nana— said: Listen first, speak when it matters, and let your actions carry the weight. That may sound radical in our social-media-driven world and D.C. politics — but I am committed to following her advice,' Curtis said on the floor.
Curtis traveled to four sites as part of his pilgrimage, visiting each landmark alone in order to 'listen, to feel, to seek inspiration.' However, the junior senator encouraged constituents to join him virtually by sending personal stories and memories from the destinations.
Beginning at Ensign Peak, Curtis finished his tour at three different sites in Washington, D.C.
'My listening tour next took me to hallowed ground,' Curtis said: Arlington National Cemetery.
There, Curtis said he wandered from stone to stone, reading the inscriptions of those who had been buried there. As he walked, Curtis paused to hear the voices from those laid to rest.
'What would they say to me?' he asked.
'Sometimes their voices whispered gently; sometimes they spoke with striking clarity. But never — ever — did they ask about my political party,' Curtis said.
Next, he ventured across the Potomac River to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was there, he said, that values such as moral clarity and commitments to peace took on a deeper meaning.
'The values our nation needs … can't be manufactured by government, or mass-produced by culture,' he said. 'They must be grown, like they always have been, in the cottage industries of family and community.'
Finally, Curtis walked just 10 minutes away to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was there that Curtis reflected on unity and humility — and it was there that he was reminded of his late colleague, former Rep. Mia Love.
'Mia broke barriers as the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress,' he said. 'She used her voice to lift and to call us to our better angels, and now Mia is one. At her funeral, her children read a final message she had written to the nation — words that deserve to be remembered.'
Curtis' tribute to Love struck many in the chamber, and Britt was seen wiping tears from her eyes as she listened to Curtis' speech.
As Curtis reflected on his pilgrimage, the newly elected senator used those experiences to dictate his top priorities for his term.
At the forefront, Curtis is asking his colleagues to engage honestly and transparently as they move forward with the new administration. Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has turned the federal government upside down — but Curtis urged his colleagues to ensure policies improve the country.
'I don't think you can separate a successful president from a successful country, and I think that's why — sure, they may not be totally aligned with the president's agenda, but we do want him to be successful, because that is the country being successful,' Curtis told the Deseret News.
At the same time, Curtis warned that the Republican Party cannot be 'just the rubber stamp' for his agenda without any pushback.
'I view us in ways kind of like his board of directors,' Curtis said in an interview. 'You want a board of directors to see things you don't see, that gives you feedback no one else is giving you.'
To do that, he said, lawmakers must be honest — especially about the things that his GOP colleagues have sought to avoid in the past.
Chief among that list: clean energy.
'Consumers are asking for cleaner, more responsible energy choices,' Curtis said in his remarks. 'At the same time, we need to be realistic about the demands of powering a modern nation. Affordability matters. Reliability matters. And we must protect — not surrender — our energy independence.'
Lawmakers must also be honest about the national debt and deficit, he said — two topics at the top of mind of lawmakers as Republicans attempt to push through Trump's agenda.
Much of that agenda hinges on a massive budget framework making its way through the House, which encompasses spending cuts to programs such as Medicaid. While lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have weaponized the proposal with opposing messages, Curtis urged his colleagues to be honest about the underlying issue: federal programs need reform.
'(We) are not being honest with the American people when we pretend that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid don't need reform,' Curtis said in his floor speech. 'And we are all equally dishonest when we weaponize fear — telling seniors that reform means abandonment. It doesn't. It never has."
Curtis joins his Utah colleagues in the House and Senate in his push to return federal lands to the state as more than 65% of Utah's land is owned by the federal government. Lee nodded his head as Curtis expressed his desire to return those lands to Utah farmers.
'We can have an honest conversation about these challenges now—or we can be the ones who have to deliver the devastating, draconian, and harmful cuts that will inevitably come to our seniors if we don't,' Curtis said. 'And, our success as a nation depends on each of us — and all of us — in this chamber being unflinchingly honest and working together to make America wildly successful.'